Hycrome's multi automated peening facilities provide processing capabilities for shot peening components of many shapes, sizes and materials under strictly controlled conditions. Approvals are held for military and civil aircraft, including Controlled Shot Peening, Glass Bead Peening, and Vacu-Blast.

Shot peening is a cold working process in which the surface of a part is bombarded with small spherical steel shot. Each piece of shot striking the material imparts to the surface a small indentation or dimple. This action combined with the reaction of the sub-surface material fibres, produces an area of cold-worked material highly stressed in compression immediately below the dimples.

As these dimples overlap a uniform layer of residual compressive stress in the Metal is produced. It is well known that cracks will not initiate or propagate in a compressively stressed zone. As fatigue and stress corrosion failures originate at the surface of a component, compressive stresses induced by shot peening provide considerable increases in part life. Shot peening will also increase the surface hardness of many materials due to the cold working effect.

Inducing compressive stresses and cold working are beneficial in increasing resistance to fatigue failures, corrosion fatigue, stress corrosion cracking, hydrogen assisted cracking, fretting, galling and erosion caused by cavitations. Shot peening also reduces porosity in the surface of the material, thus giving rise to greater corrosion resistance and enhanced product life.